Saturday, September 25, 2010

Diamond-Waltrip Racing driver Trevor Bayne finished sixth Saturday in the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Dover International Speedway. Bayne overcame tire issues early in the event and fell from seventh to 15th before rallying to finish sixth. The sixth-place finish is his 10th top-10 in 2010. The NASCAR Nationwide Series travels to Kansas next Saturday.

TREVOR BAYNE, No. 99 OUT! Pet Care Toyota
• Bayne started eighth and finished sixth
• Fell from seventh to 15th under caution on lap 70 when he experienced a tire issue
• Worked his way back to sixth by a caution on lap 135
• Never fell outside of the top-15 and remained on the lead lap the entire race
• Recorded his tenth top-10 of the season.

NNS Racing Results

• Kyle Busch won the Dover 200 - his 11th race of the NNS season setting a new single season record
• Sam Ard previously held the record with 10 NNS wins in 1983
• Busch recorded his third victory and eighth top-10 finish in 13 races at Dover International Speedway
• Joey Logano, Carl Edwards, Reed Sorenson and Kevin Harvick rounded out the top-five
• Series point leader Brad Keselowski finished 17th and holds a 320 point lead over Carl Edwards
• The race featured three lead changes among three drivers.
• The race was slowed by four cautions for a total of 19 laps.

BAYNE QUOTE: “We had a really good OUT! Pet Care Toyota today. We got behind a little bit today with a tire issue and had to come down pit road and lost some spots about halfway through, but we raced hard to get back towards the front. It’s tough to make up track position when you only have a couple cautions. I’m really proud of the whole No. 99 team today for working hard to get us back up there. Our pit stops were great all day and that definitely helped.”

DOVER, Del. -- It was a pair of teenagers who conquered the "Monster Mile" like veterans Friday.

Eighteen-year-old Brett Moffitt picked up his second NASCAR K&N Pro Series East win in the season finale Friday in the Sunoco 150 at Dover International Speedway. And Ryan Truex, 18, clinched his second straight series championship simply by taking the green-flag and capped off his year with a third-place finish.

Max Gresham won the 21 Means 21 Pole Award presented by Coors Light earlier in the day and was leading the race on the first green-white-checkered attempt. However, he brought out the caution with major smoke coming out from underneath the car. That brought a second green-white-checkered finish and Moffitt pulled away from second-place finisher Corey LaJoie and Truex for the win.

MARTIN TRUEX JR. — “It was a decent lap. You can always do better. You can always find more wrong with your lap versus what you did right. Today it’s been a decent practice day. Our last run ended up being our best we had been all day. It wasn’t quite good enough and we needed to make a few more changes. It was a good pick up for us. That might end up being one of the biggest pickups of the day when considering making adjustments and going back out running. All and all, it was a good pick up for us. It was perfect and we’ll still try and make it better yet. It was a good lap for the NAPA Toyota. It’s been awhile since I’ve been in victory lane, but the last time was here. I love coming up here to Dover. It’s been a great week we had two Martin Truex Jr. Foundation events that included my third annual golf tournament. It’s been a really good week and I would like to top it off with a win.”

DAVID REUTIMANN — "We really missed it today. We kept tightening up the Aaron's Dream Machine Toyota and when I went out to qualify it felt like it was plowing in the center. We just went too far in trying to tighten it up. It's disappointing - we normally qualify pretty well here and we ran well here in the spring. We'll just keep working on it tomorrow and try to get it better before the race on Sunday."

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

CORNELIUS, N.C. — No. 00 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota driver Ryan Truex earns his second consecutive K&N Pro Series East championship Friday when he starts the series finale at Dover International Speedway. The 18-year-old Mayetta, N.J. native won his second race in 2010 last weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway building a 118-point lead over the second-place driver. The lead guarantees Truex the title if he starts Friday’s race.

RYAN TRUEX QUOTES

Racing at Dover International Speedway: "Dover is a fun track to race at. You can go high in one and two and make a run on people, but it is also pretty strenuous with the speeds. You really have to be aggressive to do well. We went there last year and had a top-ten run, but this year we’re looking to put it all on the line for the win. I’ve had a neat opportunity to race so close to my hometown for the last two races of the season. I want to go out there and get another win for MWR. They’ve worked really hard for this and another trip to victory lane would be a good end to our East Series season.”

Clinching the East Series Championship: "Winning the championship was our season goal, and I’m lucky to have the opportunity to win it in front of my friends and family. I’m looking forward to going into Dover and being able to go out and win and not have to worry about points. It will most likely be my last race in the East Series so we’re really going to lay it on the line and try to get the win”

Looking back on the 2010 East Series Season: “It was a great year and everyone worked hard and gave me awesome race cars every week. We were always in contention for wins and were consistent and that is what it takes to win championships. I’m proud of my guys and everyone at MWR and very thankful to be where I’m at. Hopefully we can move on to bigger and better things.”

NOTES

• Only six drivers have won back-to-back East Series titles—none as a teenager.

• Dover International Speedway is 128 miles from Truex’s hometown of Mayetta, N.J.

• Truex owns five career East Series victories.

• Veteran Mike Greci, who once served as Martin Truex’s crew chief, has been working with Truex throughout his career in the East Series beginning in 2008.

• Truex is the first driver to earn a championship for Michael Waltrip Racing when he won the K&N Pro Series East Championship in 2009.

• Truex is the third member of his family to win in the K&N Pro Series East. His father, Martin Truex Sr. won at New Hampshire in 1994 and his brother NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver, Martin Truex Jr. won five times.

CORNELIUS, N.C. — Every time Trevor Bayne climbs into the No. 99 OUT! Pet Care Toyota he wonders if this will be the weekend he notches his first NASCAR Nationwide Series victory. He’s been getting closer and closer. The 19-year-old, Knoxville, Tenn., finished a career-best third in the series’ most recent race in Richmond. He’s scored the fifth most points of any driver and most points of a Nationwide Series only driver in the last 10 races. This weekend the Diamond-Waltrip Racing driver races at Dover International Speedway. Bayne is seventh in the standings with only eight races left in the 2010 season.

TREVOR BAYNE QUOTES

SEVENTH PLACE IN STANDINGS: “It’s cool to work our way up to seventh after the rough start we had in February. We’ve had a lot of ups and downs. We started the season off with a 41st-place finish at Daytona and just struggled until about May. Before that we struggled to get the finishes we deserved. Now, I think we’ve figured out how to run in the top five each week and finish. Our next step is to figure out that little bit extra to win a race. Hopefully, we’ll do that this weekend in Dover and get us closer to the top five in the standings.”

BAYNE ON DOVER: “I like racing at Dover a lot. I don’t have a ton of experience there but I do have some track time. I finished 29th there in May and I ran an East race there once. For us to be successful this weekend we have to be able to get to the throttle hard and fast up off the corners. I remember in the East Series cars we were almost wide open during qualifying and the Nationwide cars aren’t that far off. One thing Martin (Truex Jr.) told me was to make sure you get to the throttle wide open. If you have to get to the gas easy and wait on the car a little off the corners you will get your butt kicked at Dover.”

NOTES OF INTEREST

• Bayne will participate in an autograph session on Saturday from 8:30-9:30 a.m. at the Dover International Speedway FanZone.

• Gary and Blake Bechtel along with Michael Waltrip Racing own Diamond-Waltrip Racing that fields Toyota Camrys out of the MWR shop in Cornelius, N.C. The Bechtels have owned cars in the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series since 1990. The Morgan Hill, California residents’ teams have visited victory lane 10 times in the Nationwide Series.

• Bayne owns only one Nationwide Series start on the one-mile concrete oval in Dover. On May 15, he started 23rd and raced well before a late race incident left him with a 29th-place finish. Bayne started third and finished 21st in the Sept. 19, 2008 NASCAR K&N Pro Cup East Series race at Dover.

• Bayne is the second highest series-only regular in the driver point standings.

• Only Bayne, Michael Waltrip, Jeff Gordon, and Sam Ard have notched three consecutive Nationwide poles. Bayne won poles at St. Louis, Indianapolis and Iowa in July.

• Bayne owns 42 NNS starts. He has four poles (Indianapolis –2009, 2010, Gateway—2010 and Iowa 2010), five top-fives and 10 top-10s and has led 129 laps. His best finish (third) came at Gateway International Raceway on July 17 and at Richmond International Raceway on September 10.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (Sept. 22, 2010) – Just days after Richard Childress revealed on Inside NASCAR that he told his team that a Richard Childress Racing car should be the one to bring down four-time champion Jimmie Johnson, RCR driver Clint Bowyer scored the first victory of the Chase and his first win in 88 races at Loudon. This week, Rick Hendrick joins the Inside NASCAR panel to discuss his feelings on this season’s championship.

On the heels of Sunday’s Manning Bowl, Inside NASCAR called on some of the big name motorsports brothers for some insight into the Chase. Kurt Busch stopped in to talk about his season, last week’s race and the career of his younger brother Kyle Busch, while Darrell Waltrip dropped by to the set to battle his brother Michael Waltrip in this week’s Hot Laps segment.

In addition to exclusive highlights, expert analysis and behind-the-wheel action from Sunday’s race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, the Inside NASCAR cast will look ahead to the AAA 400 at Dover International Speedway. Below are some notable quotes.

With so much chatter about this season’s aggressive driving, Hendrick proclaimed, “I predict the double file restarts are going to decide the championship. I believe in the next nine races we will have probably 30 attempts within the 75-laps-to-go window where it’s going to be double file restarts. And it’s going to be whoever can escape these next 30 opportunities without having a problem.” He elaborated, “It’s like a Saturday night shootout every time they have a restart.”

In reaction to the race at Loudon, Busch offered, “It was like I was on ice. I almost got into [Jeff] Burton and I ended up getting into [Joey] Logano. I feel bad about it.” He continued, “I think the intensity last week was just different than any other year that I’ve been in it to start it off. Every which way you looked there was action going on.”

When discussing this year’s Chase, Randy Pemberton asserted, “I don’t think we’ve seen more non-Chase guys capable of running upfront than we have right here in 2010.”

Inside NASCAR is hosted by Chris Myers with analysts Brad Daugherty, Pemberton and Waltrip. Inside NASCAR is produced in conjunction with the NASCAR Media Group. New episodes will air on SHOWTIME Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT for 38 weeks corresponding with the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. The co-executive producers are Ken Hershman, Executive Vice President and General Manager of SHOWTIME Sports and Jay Abraham, Chief Operating Officer, NASCAR Media Group. The executive in charge of production is Jim Jorden with Mike Wells acting as consulting director.

For additional bonus content including behind-the-scenes video and photos visit the SHOWTIME Sports website at http://www.sho.com/sports.